We have introduced a maximum line width to articles. Research has shown that limiting the width of long-form text leads to a more comfortable reading experience, and better retention of the content itself.
Our studies with readers showed that readability was an issue with the current interface, in particular being able to focus on the content
Pages that are not in a long-text format (such as diffs, special pages, page history) will be presented at full-width as before
Logged-in users who wish to read articles at full width are welcomed to set up a script or gadget that will allow for this, such as this one
For more details on research and motivation, see ourresearch section
3. Issues that will not be addressed at this time (issues that are not part of the Desktop Improvements project, belonging to other teams, etc.)
A preference which allows the fixed width of the page to be turned off.
A local gadget (currently experimental) or personal userscripts may address this at an individual editor level. — xaosfluxTalk 10:10, 28 July 2022 (UTC)